Odia Filmmaker Serves on Jury Selecting India’s Oscar Entry

Bhubaneswar: Shankhajeet De, a renowned Odia filmmaker celebrated for his outstanding works, played a crucial role as part of a 17-member jury committee chaired by eminent Kannada language filmmaker Grish Kasaravalli responsible for choosing India’s official entry for the Academy Awards. The Malayalam movie ‘2018: Everyone is a Hero’ was selected for this prestigious honour.

“It was a hectic schedule. All of the jury members were asked to observe each movie minutely after that detailed discussions were held. It was quite an intense discussion in various rounds,” Shankhajeet De shared about the rigorous selection process.

“It was a collective decision to select the movie ‘2018’. The subject of the movie is a global issue and it would connect with people. The movie persuasively tells a story of human resilience and the sense of fraternity,” he added, explaining why ‘2018’ was chosen.

“Everyone in the jury felt the movie will resonate, and it needs to be told,” he continued.

Lamenting that no Odia film was submitted for consideration, he said, “Many good Odia movies were released recently which could have been sent to the Film Federation of India for review, but sadly not a single Odia movie was sent. Even the chairman of the Film Federation of India was surprised.”

Stating that more regional movies should be sent, he opinioned, “We have a film industry of various languages, and every year many good films are made in regional languages apart from Hindi Film Industry.”

“We had to select from the received 22 films only; however, more movies could have been screened if they were sent. I believe that we need to encourage directors and producers to send their movies to the Film Federation of India. As a jury, we have submitted a memorandum of recommendation regarding this,” shared Shankhajeet.

Describing the overall experience, Shankhajeet De termed it “astounding,” highlighting the importance of promoting regional cinema on the national stage.